For the suppliers looking to navigate enterprise conversations today, meet John Taylor (JT). When Medtronic needed to reshape how a global medical device company thought about its supply chain, JT was at the forefront. When ADM needed someone to build supplier diversity infrastructure that could operate at the scale of one of the world’s largest agricultural processors, he led that build too. Across senior roles at ADM, Cargill, and Medtronic; three industries, three different definitions of enterprise complexity; JT had a massive influence on what partnership meant for the supply chains he was responsible for protecting, and for the futures of the businesses and communities built around it.
Today, JT is bringing his experience to you, going Beyond the Logo with Jayne Agency and MBE Magazine — to talk about brand, clarity around the business’ story, and numbers, meant for the opportunity in front of suppliers everywhere.
Our biggest takeaway after talking with John: Preparation is everything—it always has been, and today, now more than ever.
Leveraging the insiders who can advocate for your business is just as critical. To begin thinking of how to do both of those things, prepare and connect with those who can push you through, keep reading. Let’s get into it, starting with what we all already have top of mind when it comes to these conversations, pitching.
Pitching to enterprise leaders. It’s not what most founders expect.
“I have seen talented founders undersell themselves because they spend all their time talking about passion and not enough time talking about performance,” John Taylor says. This observation sounds like pitch advice starting to take shape but it’s actually a description of how enterprise decisions get made, and how far upstream prep work needs to begin. According to JT, brands should really pay attention to the following, heading into an enterprise conversation: Financials, insurance, cybersecurity protocols, environmental standards. The whole nine yards. (There’s more).
“When you walk into an enterprise room, and you can speak in the language of savings, efficiency, quality, innovation, and risk management, and you have real examples, that changes how people sit up and listen.” He adds.
How do you get that all packaged up? You define your brand’s strategy, clarify your promise, and solidify your position. At Jayne Agency, we codify these through the 10 brand assets. Goals, objectives, barriers, strategies, audience, insight, position, promise, support, tone & personality. Define these, and you have everything you need to tell your story — in 11 seconds or 3 minutes — for ESG, compliance, company culture, finance, long-term growth strategy, and more.
That prep work, defining the full picture and story of what your business delivers, to someone who has never met you, is what gives someone inside that enterprise a reason to start supporting your brand, before you ever have a meeting with them.
As JT explains it, that someone is your internal champion. A category manager, a supply lead, the sourcing director who saw something in you and decided to put their name behind it. They cannot hand you the contract. But they can make the case for you in every room you are never invited to. And they will only do that if what you bring them holds up without you there to explain it.
When your story is clear and your numbers are documented you give that internal champion something to stand on.
John felt this on a constant basis. “We were not just buying a product or a service,” he says. “We were buying into a team and a culture that would be in our ecosystem for years.”
He watched this play out in real-time with Sagiliti, an African American-owned utility bill management firm that documented tens of millions in savings over a decade with the kind of detailed analysis a senior leader could read and understand on their own. That documentation made John’s internal advocacy easy. And when advocacy is easy, contracts can move forward.
What we want you to walk away with today is: know your worth, know your numbers, and know your story.
Looking to define your story on your terms, your timeline? Check out Jayne Agency’s Clarity University
